Beautifully Broken

Breaking News, Sis! ✨
It’s a new year, a new season, and a brand-new devotional series.

During the fall season, we bundled up, got cozy, and fell deeper in love with Jesus. The FALLing in Love with Jesus series invited us to receive fresh revelation of God’s immense love for us and His desire for a close, personal relationship with each one of us.

Together, we leaned into what it looks like to love and see ourselves the way He does, and to love our neighbors the way He has called us to.

Now that winter has arrived, and we know without a doubt that He loves us through it all, He is inviting us beyond warmth and comfort. In this season, He is calling us into a place of full surrender, letting go of self, and yielding to a deep, refining process.

This process has been described in many ways throughout Scripture and the life of the believer: pressing, purification, refining, sanctification, and the crucifixion of the flesh. Each represents a sacred work where God removes what is unnecessary, purifies what has been compromised, heals the deepest parts of our soul, and reshapes us for greater intimacy and fruitfulness.

But in this season, we will simply call it The Breaking.

This is not a feel-good series by any means, Sis. This one is going to hurt. Breaking hurts. Stripping hurts. A purge is not comfortable. But it is necessary.

And when it is done with God, it becomes a beautiful breaking, one that leads to freedom, wholeness, and true transformation.

As always, everything I speak on is something that I’ve had to go through and learn, or am currently going through and learning. This process of breaking falls under both. Because again, the key word is process, Sis. All of this is a journey. Nothing happens overnight, and our Father doesn’t expect it to. That’s what I love about God. He is so patient and gracious, and He knows exactly the amount of space and time we need to work it out and walk it out.

Why The Breaking?

Looking back over my life, I can testify that my darkest, most painful seasons are what shaped me into the woman of God I am today. The seasons where I cried more than laughed, lost more than gained, and felt more misunderstood than understood. The seasons where I mistakenly thought God was overlooking me and giving me the silent treatment, when in reality, He was still working, maturing me, and breaking things that had been so deeply rooted in my soul.

That is what this series is all about, Sis: our soul. That is God’s main concern. He isn’t concerned with surface-level matters like the world is. God wants our souls to be healed. He wants us to go beneath the surface, because that is where the root is. The roots of insecurity, anger, trauma, abuse, fear, depression, and so forth.

He wants to break the ice, the things that have made us cold and hardened our hearts. Those are the places the world may not see, but God does. Those are the places we have swept under the rug, which have resulted in an iceberg of shame, guilt, and negative core beliefs that God wants to BREAK.

So let’s buckle up for this winter breaking, Sis. It won’t be easy. It won’t feel good. It won’t be warm and fuzzy. But I can guarantee, yes guarantee, that if we surrender to this breaking process, the woman who comes out of it will never be the same again. She will be beautifully broken in the best way.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, My God in Heaven,

Thank you for allowing me to see this new year and this new season. Your grace and love throughout the course of my life are evident, and I am so grateful. Help me to see Your love in every season, even when things feel dark and cold. Help me to trust You when things feel unknown and uncertain. Remove fear and angst, and strengthen my faith so that I can walk in and fulfill Your plan and purposes for my life.

In this season of breaking, help me to endure. Strengthen me when I am weak, for Your power is revealed in my weakness. Lord, renew my mind and transform me from the inside out. I submit to You so that You can do the deep, refining work that is necessary. Heal my soul and the parts of me that have been afflicted. Break the things that are not of You and that You never intended for me to carry.

In the places where my heart has been hardened, soften me. Lord, thank You for Your graceful, beautiful breaking. For I know that You have plans to prosper me. As I surrender to this process, help me to remain faithful, patient, and obedient. Give me the strength to trust You fully, knowing that what You are breaking now is preparing me for what is to come. Let this breaking produce fruit in my life that brings You glory, and let my life be a reflection of Your healing, redeeming power.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scriptures to meditate on this week:

“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (NIV, John 15:2)

“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (NIV, Isaiah 48:10)

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (NIV, James 1:4)